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Owens just can’t
help himself

SOME people just can't seem to get out of the way of their own personalities.

We've all seen it. We've all done it, to one extent or another. But the serial offenders are the ones who should be living a peaceful, easy existence but somehow always seem to be swimming in controversies mostly of their own making. Just because they can't seem to help being themselves.

Enter our old friend Terrell Owens.

It would be easy, at this point in his career, for T.O. to be a beloved figure. He was a model teammate with the Philadelphia Eagles a season ago. Then, he converted even his harshest critics by coming back from injury to play big in the Super Bowl.

It was a great story. The Philly fanatic should be awash in brotherly love. People wanted to like him.

All he would have to do is, well, just let it happen.

Instead, we're forced to use our John Belushi voices in unison here: But noooooooooo!

Some people just can't seem to get out of the way of their own personalities.

So now, divisiveness. Demands for more money. Dissing of teammates, including the eminently respected Chunky Soup Man.

Of course.

He'd been a really, really, really awful teammate in the past, and everyone said it was only a matter of time. It appears everyone was right.

It would have been easy for him to be Mr. Eagle. It would have been easy to have everyone on his side. Instead, it seems that just isn't him.

We've all seen it.

But Owens should be told a story about a guy named Jeff George. George may not have looked it, but he was probably one of the most physically talented players in the history of the NFL. Ask June Jones about that.

And yet, at the end, George couldn't even find a starting job.

T.O. may have a few more incidents worth of rope left, but maybe not as many as he thinks. You can cause only so much drama time and time and time again before those around you say no mas.

You would think it would be easy for Owens to let people like him, without always flailing at the world.

Apparently that's just not his style, and that's fine. But comedian Dave Chappelle has a name for this kind of thing. He calls it "when keeping it real goes wrong."